Facebook's Slingshot Makes Users Share Photos

Facebook’s latest attempt at a Snapchat rival, Slingshot, could also be its big contribution to selfie culture. The new app is being launched by Facebook today on the iPhone and Android, and it represents a fresh attempt at easy, ephemeral picture sharing.

Slingshot hopes to capitalize on the popularity of image-based messaging, giving users a way to share with multiple friends fleeting photos that fly away after being opened. But in order to view a photo, a user has to share a photo, too.

So, you share an image and the recipient can only open it after he or she sends a reply.

The appeal is part messaging and part privacy, where digital content is destroyed after being viewed. Facebook has tried and failed at a photo-based social network before, when it built Poke, a Snapchat clone that it recently killed. It also has introduced direct-messaging feature directly into Instagram, and it bought WhatsApp a mobile messaging platform for $19 billion.

Brands and marketers are experimenting with the potential presented by such platforms, where they can communicate more intimately with consumers. Once a brand gets users to follow their accounts, they are free to share.

Facebook’s latest attempt at a Snapchat rival, Slingshot, could also be its big contribution to selfie culture. The new app is being launched by Facebook today on the iPhone and Android, and it represents a fresh attempt at easy, ephemeral picture sharing.

Slingshot hopes to capitalize on the popularity of image-based messaging, giving users a way to share with multiple friends fleeting photos that fly away after being opened. But in order to view a photo, a user has to share a photo, too.

So, you share an image and the recipient can only open it after he or she sends a reply.

The appeal is part messaging and part privacy, where digital content is destroyed after being viewed. Facebook has tried and failed at a photo-based social network before, when it built Poke, a Snapchat clone that it recently killed. It also has introduced direct-messaging feature directly into Instagram, and it bought WhatsApp a mobile messaging platform for $19 billion.

Brands and marketers are experimenting with the potential presented by such platforms, where they can communicate more intimately with consumers. Once a brand gets users to follow their accounts, they are free to share.